http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE56C1B320090713
QuoteSwearing can make you feel better, lessen pain
Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:51am EDT
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Cut your finger? Hurt your leg? Start swearing. It might lessen the pain.
Researchers from the school of psychology at Britain's Keele University have found swearing can make you feel better as it can have a "pain-lessening effect," according to a study published in the journal NeuroReport.
Colleagues Richard Stephens, John Atkins and Andrew Kingston, set out to establish if there was any link between swearing and physical pain.
"Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon," says Stephens.
"It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain. Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists."
Their study involved 64 volunteers who were each asked to put their hand in a tub of ice water for as long as possible while repeating a swear word of their choice.
They then repeated the experiment using a more commonplace word that they would use to describe a table.
The researchers found the volunteers were able to keep their hands in the ice water for a longer when swearing, establishing a link between swearing and an increase in pain tolerance.
Stephens said it was not clear how or why this link existed but it could be because swearing may increase aggression.
"What is clear is that swearing triggers not only an emotional response, but a physical one too, which may explain why the centuries-old practice of cursing developed and still persists today," he said.
(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)
Quotewhich may explain why the centuries-old practice of cursing developed and still persists today," he said.
I bet it has been this way since humans developed speech... damnit!
I am forwarding this to my wife. She always gets on to me for swearing... now I have medical justification. Brilliant.
not all swearing is the same. Some swear due to extreme agony like in the study, some swear like it is the "space bar" in talking, some swear because lacking of vocabulary.
G*d f*cking damnit, it's about time they figured the f*cked up s*it out, stupid a** sons of b*tches.
There, I feel better now.
Had a college roommate once who swore constantly. Everything was f'ing this and gd that and you MFer. One day he tripped and slammed his head into the door frame. Holding his bleeding head and rolling around on the floor in agony, he said through gritted teeth, "Oh, Goodness!!."